


X-MEN EVOLUTION: TURNCOAT

by ziggbot



Category: X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men Evolution
Genre: Action, Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-03-29 17:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13931892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziggbot/pseuds/ziggbot
Summary: When an Acolyte mission to kidnap the newly elected Sen. Kelly goes south, Gambit is caught in an explosion. After Colossus ignores orders and tries to save Remy from the flames, the two are left for dead. Out of options, and soon to be out of blood in Remy's case, their only choice is to turn to the mutants of Xavier's Institute for help.





	1. Changing Times

After all the months of plans, infiltrations, fights, and enemies, Remy was left with one simple question: Why the hell had he stuck around this long? Honestly, what had all this hard work done for him, or for mutant-kind for that matter? The world was more anti-mutant than ever since the 'Apocalypse Event', and six months on there were still no signs of that changing. That fact was more than proven by the election of Sen. Robert Kelly, a rotten piece of shit if ever there  _was one_. Seeing his face all over the local newspapers made Remy's skin crawl.

That man had run on little more than an outright hate-campaign on mutants, and he was still elected. The added insult of not even being able to vote in any of this mess was like salt on the wound. His frustration clung to him like a wet shirt as he tossed the paper he had been reading to the side, kicking his feet up on the control desk and crossing his arms tight. Maybe a few years ago he wouldn't have cared about any of this, but something about seeing things like Sentinels had a way of changing his view. Humans were gearing up, and he wasn't sure when it would stop.

The sound of heavy, yet carefully planted footsteps caught his attention, though he didn't move. He knew who it was, and that was confirmed when Victor Creed's large, clawed hand swatted his feet off of the desk. He let out in a low growling tone, "Stop slouching on our equipment, LeBeau."

Remy looked up at him, a smirk plastered on his face. Well, at least annoying the big furry brick of a mutant helped him let off a  _little_  steam. "Seein' as Sinjun's feet practically  _live_  on  _our equipment_ , I figured it could handle my little ol' boots." He thickened his accent just to let the sardonicism sink in.

Victor was not amused, leaning in closer to the point of being inches from Remy's face. Remy didn't flinch as Victor snarled, "Do it again and I'll 'handle'  _you_."

Clearly he was asserting his rank as Magneto's favorite again. "My, my. Whadda fine mood you're in." Remy tossed his hands up and shrugged. "Fine, forgive the offense..." He stood up from the chair, turning and walking casually away to put some distance between them. He never liked the feeling of hot breath on his face. "Did you come in just to correct my house manners, or is d'ere something goin' on?"

Victor stood straight, the edge of his lips curling up into a small scowl. "As a matter of fact, Magneto has work for us to do. Something important."

Well, there was no turning down a summons from the big honcho, himself. Remy moved to follow Victor as soon as he turned around. They headed back toward Magneto's makeshift 'office', which was in the back of the complex. When he arrived, Piotr and Sinjun were already there, the first sitting calmly and properly in his chair while the latter rested like some sort of school punk in class, pushing his feet against the table to tilt his chair back.

As Remy walked behind Sinjun's chair, he tipped it further, just to make the Australian yipe and cling onto the table for fear of falling over. "Fire hazard, don'tcha know," Remy quipped smugly. Sinjun gumbled at him, but took the hint and sat more normally. Remy sat down backwards in his seat, crossing his arms over the back of the chair.

Magneto entered the room after everyone had taken their seats, floating a foot or so above the floor. Remy always wondered why he felt the need to toss on the god-complex around them. It's not like they didn't know he shat in the same stalls they did. "I'll keep this simple," Magneto started, crossing his arms behind his back. "Tonight, Senator Kelly will be on his way to Washington, D.C." As he spoke, he looked around the room at each of his Acolytes, seeming to judge their readiness. Satisfied, he continued. "I want the four of you to follow him, capture him, and bring him here."

Remy's interest was certainly piqued. He sat up, raising two fingers to pause for a question. Magneto looked at him silently, giving him the cue to speak. "D'ere a reason we're kidnappin' politicians?"

Magneto's eyes narrowed, a grave expression coming to his features. "You are already aware of his stance on mutants. Should he be given space in the senate to convince others that his views are correct, we'll be facing a full-force hunt from the government."

"An' kidnappin' him is gonna change his mind?" Remy raised a brow. His tone got him a sharp glare from Victor, and a curious look from Piotr.

Magneto drew in a slow breath through his nose. "No, but I have a plan to...  _persuade_  him." Remy looked his boss straight in the eyes, expecting him to explain. "I have a high-power telepath ready to reprogram the senator. Once she is done, he will prove to be quite supportive of mutants."

Remy saw Piotr's posture go stiff and rigid in response to that idea. He didn't like it much, either. The idea of stealing someone's free will hit his gut like a bottle of vinegar. "Now hold on, you're talkin' 'bout  _brainwashin'_  him? What if--"

Magneto held up his hand. "It is none of your concern. Your only order is to capture Kelly and bring him here." Remy stared, silent for a while. He'd known Magneto to be a pretty radical type, but this was something different entirely. If they started doing this, there was no telling how far he'd be willing to go to secure his  _idea_  of mutant rights.

He opened his mouth to try and object again, but Victor spoke up before him. "We will return with the senator, as you have ordered." The two leaders shared a look for a moment that seemed to communicate some sort of assurance, then Magneto left the room.

As soon as he did, Remy's feet were off the ground, his chair tossed aside, and his back slammed against the nearest wall. Victor snarled loudly at him as he gripped the collar of his trenchcoat. "You have a funny idea of taking orders, LeBeau. I have half a mind to kill you right here for your tongue..." Remy could see Sinjun and Piotr standing up to watch the action cautiously. It wasn't like this was a rare event. 

Remy cleared his throat and grabbed onto one of Victor's bracers. "Oh yeah? I'm sure Magneto would love you shrinkin' our numbers even more..!" A few sparks crawled up and down the leather of Victor's bracer, charged with kinetic energy. "Put me down or I'll--" he was down, alright, tossed to the concrete like a sack of flour. The sparks dissipated in moments. 

"Magneto isn't an idiot. He knows what he's doing," Victor said flatly, though even he sounded somewhat disappointed with the details. "If he wants Kelly here, he'll get him, even if I think it'd be easier to just  _kill_  the old man..."

"Oh," Remy said through a grimace as he stood back up, "I get it. He wants brainwashin', you want bodies. Well,  _neither'a_  d'ose are gonna help mutant-kind, dat's for sure..."

"You sound like an X-Man." Victor splayed his clawed fingers, ready to attack again. "You have no idea what will help mutant-kind, you lowlife! Since when did you get a conscious?"

When he tried to take a large leap forward to close the gap between the two of them, Piotr stepped in-between them. He was already in his metallic form, impervious to any attacks Victor could have thrown. "Enough. We should not be fighting amongst ourselves." He held his hands up to keep them apart. "Let us prepare for the mission."

Victor, after some heavy breathing, eased down, and Remy let out a small sigh and looked away. With the fight diffused, Piotr lowered his hands, and walked out of the room. Sinjun looked almost disappointed that the action had ended so soon, following after.

Victor walked past Remy, shoving his shoulder out of the way. "I'll be clear, so you can understand me, LeBeau. If you question orders again, or I get any scent of you turning against us, I'll kill you myself."

"Sure would like dat, wouldn't you...?" Remy said quietly. Victor didn't respond, walking silently out of the room and leaving Remy to himself.


	2. Decision Time

Finding Kelly was easy enough. Sinjun was good enough with computers to pull up his private address within an hour. Once they had arrived at the nice looking, suburban home, they needed to find a good spot to stake out in their van without being noticed; a task that was given to Gambit, as the most experienced thief. Soon enough, they saw Kelly's car drive out from the garage, and their hunt was on. They followed from a safe distance to keep from being noticed, taking advantage of the hillside roads to hide behind the curves. All the while, the group was silent, with not a single word said among them until the time came.

Sabertooth, who was driving the van, was the one to break the silence with a simple order to Gambit, who was sitting in the seat directly behind him. "We're ready. Do it."

Gambit's eyes met with Sabertooth's through the rear-view mirror, sharp and resolute, and he pulled a deck of cards from his coat pocket. He slipped the first card out, the Joker, and charged it as he rolled his window down. As soon as they came out of the curve, Sabertooth gunned it down the straight stretch of road. Gambit leaned out of the window, taking only a second to aim before flinging the card ahead. It made contact with the back-left tire, bursting it open with a small explosion. It was just enough to force the vehicle into a swerve off of the road, tumbling into one of the turnouts.

Their van screeched to a halt beside the turnout, blocking the road with how Sabertooth had positioned it. This wasn't a busy road. No one was coming through. They all climbed out of the van as fast as they could, heading toward the tipped car ahead of them. The instant Colossus was out of the van, he shifted into his metallic form. Pyro readied his tank with a small spit of fire from his wrist-mounted nozzles, giggling excitedly.

Gambit extended his collapsable bo-staff, but before he could get too close to the car, he saw three people - none of which were Kelly - dive out of it, guns at the ready. He only caught a glimpse of Kelly diving behind the car for cover. The way they immediately positioned themselves around the tipped car, with one at either end, and one behind it fully with Kelly, gave him the feeling they weren't just regular bodyguards. They were trained.

He warned the others by shouting, "Guns!" then dived into a tumble to close the distance between him and the closest agent. He swung his bo-staff upward, knocking the gun out of the agent's hands, and with one swift motion, the other end of his staff met with the agent's jaw, knocking him out cold. He flopped to the ground, revealing a second agent behind him. His gun was already aimed, but not at Gambit's head. Instead, he fired at his bo-staff. With expert aim, it was knocked clean out of Gambit's hands and into the dirt. This one had some kind of  _different_  training...

Sabertooth rushed for the third agent, who was on the opposite side of the vehicle from them, tackling her to the ground before she could get off a single shot. She let out a scream, then nothing. His talons glistened red in the ambient light. The agent below him stopped moving entirely. Noticing that Remy had only incapacitated the first agent, he snuck over and finished the job with a simple swipe of his claws.

A wall of flames formed to block off the other side of the road, created thick and tall by Pyro. He looked like a kid at the fair, chipper and happy to see his flames rising into the night sky. "Can't leave this way either, can ya?!" he laughed out.

Gambit dove below the last remaining agent's gun just as he fired, grabbing him by the wrist to control the weapon. The agent retaliated by landing a strong punch right to Gambit's gut, knocking the wind out of him. As he tried to keep hold of the wrist, the car that had been used as cover lifted up and off the ground, now held by Colossus to eliminate any possible advantage. Kelly let out a shrill scream of shock as Colossus tossed the vehicle into the carved out rock wall behind them. It landed, crumpled and totalled. Gambit took the opportunity of the agent being distracted to yank the gun out of his hands and throw it a good two yards away, toward the now wrecked car.

Well, that didn't turn out to be an easy solution, since the agent just quickly took up stance. Gambit didn't have time to dodge this one, and took a trained kick to the leg, which sent him to his knees. The agent backflipped toward his gun, and Gambit had to tumble again to keep in close-quarters with him. Before the agent could grab the firearm, Gambit swiped it away with his foot.

With the senator left exposed, Sabertooth swept in and punched Kelly in the temple to knock him out, then hoisted him up and leapt back toward their van. "Let's go!" he ordered. "I can hear sirens!" Colossus was the first to get back to the van after him, helping to load the unconscious senator into the back.

Gambit would have loved to just get up and go, right then, but he was busy trying to block a flurry of punches and kicks from the surprisingly skilled agent. "Load 'im in!" Gambit said, referring to the senator, "I've gotta take care of dis one!"

Pyro took that as the cue to get to the van, himself, though he still fueled the fire as he ran toward it, almost like he didn't want to have to stop yet. "C'mon, Gambit! Need me to roast 'im?" He grinned wide, anxiously fanning the flames higher and closer in to the fight.

Gambit shouted back, "Get in the damn van, already!" He blocked another kick just before the agent backflipped again, this time toward the road. As he did, he grabbed his gun. Gambit, again, assumed the agent would try to shoot him. He flung a charged playing card toward the agent. It lodged into his knuckles, and Gambit heard him let out a loud shout of pain.

But then, instead of trying to shoot him before blowing up, himself, the agent aimed for the car just behind the Gambit, shooting the gas tank. The card exploded, and took off the agent's hand, but within the second it did, the fuel from the car met with Pyro's eager flames. The heat carried right back into the gas tank from the leak, and a deafening boom followed the explosion. Everything vanished into smoke, fire, and rubble. Pyro was sent flying backward from the blast, hitting the side of the van.

"Gambit!" Colossus shouted out.

Pyro immediately stood up, shaking his head in shock. "S-shit!" He reached out with his powers, straining as he tried to bring the fire down, but it was too large to contain, now. He bit his lip and strained harder. "Come on... Come on!!"

Sabertooth looked on silently, then gave his order once again, "Let's go."

Colossus looked back at him in shock. "No! We have to get--"

"I  **said**  let's go!" Sabertooth roared with authority. He grabbed Pyro by the arm, yanking him back toward the van. "Now!!" Pyro followed that command easy, scrambling into the passenger seat.

Colossus looked at the settling dust and flames, then back to Sabertooth, his decision made. He spun back around, running toward where he'd last seen Gambit.

"Traitor!" he heard Sabertooth bellow out.

He didn't care what names were thrown at him. He knew what he had to do. He ran past the body of the Secret Service agent, who gotten himself caught in the explosion, too. He was dead and still on the ground. He began to look around at the large piles of rubble and debris. "Gambit!" he shouted once. No answer. "Remy!!" he shouted again. He began to dig through hunks of metal with his hands. One of the car's doors, which had been blasted off in the explosion, shifted just a little, enough to give him hope. He ran over, pulling it off with ease, and sure enough, Remy had been beneath it.

He was on his stomach, with dark red stains blooming from his lower left side and his right shoulder. Piotr could see tears in the fabric from something piercing through. He knelt down, carefully pushing on Remy's uninjured shoulder. "Hey," he said, trying to get a response. Nothing, but he could tell he was breathing, still. He would have to carry him to the van, then. Knowing that his metal body would be heated from the surrounding flames, he was careful to avoid any bare skin as he carefully rolled Remy over to pick up. As he did, he saw the scrapes and cuts all over Remy's face, with a particularly bad one slicing down his forehead and through his right eyebrow. He saw even more blood coming from a chunk of metal embedded in his left thigh.

He stood up, Remy held carefully in his arms, fully expecting to see the van. It was gone, with only skid marks left on the road to show for it ever having been there. They had been left behind, and he could hear sirens approaching.


	3. Left For Dead

He didn't have much time, judging by how close those sirens sounded. There was nothing around for miles, only fields and the near by river at the foot of the hill. His mind raced to try and think of options. It clicked in his mind after a second. The river might have a drainage pipe. He did his best to hold the still unconscious Remy steady as he trudged down the hillside. By the time he got to the bottom, he could see the lights of the ambulances and fire engines.

He made his way down the riverside, spotting what he'd hoped to see: A large drainage pipe, large enough for even him to climb into. He managed to climb inside and deep enough before anyone thought to comb the area. Only once he was deep enough into the tunnels of pipes did he stop for a breather.

He found a spot dry enough and carefully set Remy down, making sure to be gentle with his wounds and head. He sat down next to him, arms resting on his knees. The plan was obvious to him. He would wait for the heat to pass, then take Remy back to the Acolytes. Then he could tell Magneto what had happened, and hopefully then his family would be safe. Looking at the smears of blood on his hands started to eat away at the confidence in that plan, though. Remy was losing blood, and the Acolytes didn't have any medical equipment. He knit his brow, staring at the space between his feet. What could he do? He didn't want Remy to die, but the longer he was away from Magneto, the more danger his family would be in. He slowly buried his head in his hands.

A hiss of pain forced him to look in Remy's direction. He could see those glowing red eyes in the dark, though barely, from how hard a time Remy was having opening them. He let out a soft, moan of pain when he tried to move on his own, his uninjured arm moving to hold his left side. "Do not move. You may have shrapnel in your back." Piotr warned. Remy glanced down at his leg, seeing the chunk of metal sticking out of his thigh. His jaw fell open from the shock of it.  "You definitely have shrapnel in your leg," Piotr said rather redundantly.

"Augh..." Remy swallowed back the pain, eyes staring up at the roof of the pipe as he set his aching head back. "Where...?" He looked dizzy and confused.

"A pipe. Hiding." Piotr let out a sigh. "They left us behind."

Remy seemed to understand the situation from just that, closing his eyes and saying, "Mais la..."

"You are bleeding, and we are far from headquarters. I'm... I'm not sure what to do..." Piotr admitted before shaking his head in resignation. A silence hung heavy in the air.

Remy's eyes looked toward him. "W-we got... another option." Piotr looked back at him, reservedly curious. "... Take me t'de X-Men..."

That idea sent shivers down his spine. Not only were the X-Men not very trustful of anyone in Magneto's employ, but Magneto,  _himself_ , would be  _furious_. His family would vanish, never to be seen again. "You cannot be serious... No, my  _family_..."

"You t'ink... Magneto's gonna  _believe_  you..? Over  _Creed_..?" Remy scoffed as effectively as he could with how much pain he was in. "We're already dead to him, Piotr, or worse...  _Turncoats_..."

Piotr's brow knit, his eyes wide with worry. If that were the case, then Magneto would have no qualms about seeking retribution from his parents, or his little sister. Her powers had yet to fully develop, but Magneto already seemed so eager to use her, as well. He clenched his jaw tight, balling his hands into fists.

"X-Men... D'ey can help." Remy said, his voice cracking from exertion.

Piotr chewed his lip in thought. Could they? He knew them to be more peaceful than the Acolytes, but that didn't prove they would be willing to help. What else was there to do, though? After mulling it over for a while, he slowly nodded his head. "I suppose we do not have any other choice..." He would have to put the X-Men's compassion to the test, for the sake of his loved ones. He saw a glint of a flashlight move at the end of the tunnel. They were already searching in the pipes?! "Oh, no..." Piotr stood up quickly, reaching down to pick Remy up. Remy grunted in pain as he was lifted, but after a shoosh from Piotr, he knew to keep quiet. "We have to keep moving." Piotr whispered to him. He nodded, and with that, Piotr turned to walk further down into the maze of sheet metal and water.

\---

Sinjun was still shaking as they drove through the dirt roads leading to the Acolyte headquarters. He stared at the dashboard ahead, trying hard to swallow with a dry mouth. It was his fire that caused that explosion. He  _liked_  Remy. He  _liked_  Piotr. He liked both of them a  _hell_  of a lot more than he liked Victor. But now, here he was, having lost both of them. The looming dread of Magneto's reaction was the only thing left to think about. "V-Vic... what are we gonna tell Magneto?" he finally dared to ask. "I-I mean... leaving them behind like that..."

Victor, still silent, pulled off of the road and into a hidden turnout. He parked, sitting back calmly in his seat. He said nothing.

On edge by the silence, Sinjun grew even more desperate. "I'm serious, Vic! If he finds out we left people behind, he'll kill us!" Sinjun pleaded, finally looking toward Victor. When he did, his jaw was suddenly held tight in Victor's hand, his eyes forced to meet the scowl on Victor's face.

"You tell him they turned coat," Victor said while squeezing Sinjun's face a little tighter, almost enough to draw blood, "Or  _else_." He shoved Sinjun's head back, then started to drive down the road once more.

Sinjun shivered out a nod. "R-right! They turned coat. Nothing suspicious about that story. It's so simple. They just... turned coat! Yeah..." He tried to calm his shaking hands by wringing them while staring at his lap. They'd dropped from four members down to only two. Magneto was  _not_  going to be happy about that, no matter what the circumstances were.

\---

A dead end was just what they  _didn't_  need, right now. Yet here it was, right in front of him. No turns, no way back, and no way out except through a grate. Piotr cursed under his breath, looking behind him again, just to make sure the people following them weren't too close. The only thing left to do was obvious. He moved Remy's uninjured arm to hook around the back of his neck, freeing up one hand to pry the grate out from its frame and push it aside. The metal scraping on concrete was loud enough to make Remy's headache spike up.

"P-pretty damn loud...!" Remy said in a hushed shout. "You  _tryin'_  t'get us caught?"

Piotr tried to ignore his complaint while looking out into the area outside, which looked to be the old train yard outside of Bayville proper. He lifted Remy out, first, setting him on the ground above before climbing out, himself. When he picked Remy up again, the Cajun failed to hold back the pained whine that came out. Even past his dulled sense of touch Piotr could feel all of the man's muscles tense up in tortured knots. Each time he had to pick up or set Remy down, it would lead to more pain and more blood. He would have to try and do it as little as possible from here on out.

After moving the grate back in place with his foot, he walked through the trains, navigating carefully toward the closest road. "How many miles from Xavier's is this place...?" He was, regrettably, not nearly as well-versed in the city's layout as the others.

Remy, looking around himself, thought it over, then said, "'Bout twelve miles..." He grimaced as the thought of how long it would be until they got help sank in. "T'ree, four hours on foot..."

"I will walk fast, then."


	4. The Queen of Diamonds

Kelly was just waking up when they arrived at the headquarters. Victor left Sinjun in the passenger seat to drag the waking senator out of the back. His heart was pounding so hard he could feel it in his ears, but at least his hands weren't shakier than a ninety-year-old lady's anymore. He felt like there was a bucket of ice in his stomach, like having to take a bad report card to your parents. He choked it back. "C'mon, Sinjun, you've gotta keep your cool..." He took in a deep breath and held if for a few minutes, then deflated when the reality hit him. "When have I ever done that..?"

He shook his head and finally got out of the van, finding the solid ground under his feet to be more calming than anything else he'd tried. He took a few more deep breaths, then rubbed the back of his neck. When he saw Victor heading toward him with a groggy and half-walking-half-stumbling Kelly, he nodded and took up Kelly's other arm to help drag him along.

"Where... Where am I?!" Kelly spat out in confusion and terror. "What are you doing with me?!"

"Keep quiet, old man," Sinjun said pointedly. "If you're lucky, this won't hurt a bit.  _Maybe_."

"Oh... Oh God...!" Kelly wailed. Victor gave his arm a good yank to get him quiet.

Waiting for them in the main room of the complex was Magneto, and standing on the ground next to him was a woman, possibly in her early-to-mid-twenties. She had long, impeccably straight blonde hair, bright blue eyes, drop-dead-gorgeous looks, and a white ensemble that made everything about her scream 'I could kill you with a wink.' Sinjun found himself staring at her as Victor dragged Kelly ahead and toward Magneto.

"Senator, so glad you could join us." Magneto spoke with a facetious tone, dripping with bitter honey. He watched with a smile as Kelly was forced to sit in a chair and be tied to it by Victor, who was not gentle in any regard.

"Wh-what do you want from me?!" Kelly said through grit teeth. "I'm a public figure! What do you mean to gain by kidnapping me?!"

Magneto's eyes narrowed to a sharp glare. "Yes, you are a public figure. We can't afford to have a voice like yours out there in the open."

"W-what does that mean...?" Kelly asked with dread.

The elder mutant smiled coldly. "Senator, this fine woman is here on behalf of the Hellfire Club. Her name is Emma Frost." He held his hand out in her direction as she stepped forward.

Every single one of her movements looked trained and poised, like a statue in motion. "A mind as simple as yours will be easy to fix, Senator Kelly," she said, her voice smooth and confident. "The less you fight it, the less painful it will be. I think that's a rather generous offer, considering your past behavior towards my kind." She looked toward Magneto, now acting as if the Senator didn't even exist as more than a broken car. "It will take me five hours to thoroughly retrain his mind."

Magneto nodded to her, stern and serious. "Then you had best get started. I shall leave you alone with him for now." The metal chair Kelly was sitting in rose off of the floor, floating in the direction of one of the back rooms. Ms. Frost walked beside it, ready to begin her work.

Sinjun could hear Kelly start to scream and plead as soon as he was halfway there. "What a sissy!" he teased. "If I were left alone in a room with a lady like that, I'd be stoked!"

"Quiet," Magneto ordered, and Sinjun sunk into his shoulders sheepishly. He turned his attention to Victor. "Where are Rasputin and LeBeau?" he asked up-front.

Victor tipped his head down in respect to deliver the news himself. "They turned on us. We were forced to kill Gambit, and Piotr ran away."

Magneto's expression just then was enough to make Sinjun turn sheet white. Oh, he was mad alright. "They  _what_..?!" He gripped his hand into a fist. "And you didn't go after Colossus?!"

"We didn't have the time. Police and medical were already too close."

Magneto seemed to believe that, given Victor's superior sense of hearing. He sighed through his nostrils and turned away. "Now we are even fewer. The less power we wield, the less of a threat we can hope to pose." He pointed stiffly at Victor. "I expect you to replenish our numbers, Victor. Do not disappoint me."

"Yes, sir," Victor answered with a slight growl to his tone, like a reprimanded dog.

Sinjun was just happy it wasn't  _him_  facing that. Magneto was a right scary psycho when he was mad enough...

\---

They had long since left the isolated fields of outside Bayville, having since reached the industrial district. Open landscapes had been replaced by claustrophobic alleyways and desolate warehouses. The only source of light to be found came from the streetlights, but even with so little light, Piotr could see the bright red blood dripping down onto the ground behind them as he walked.

Remy was an expert at hiding just how terrible he must have felt. Piotr had never been seriously injured, but he knew very well what it looked like. Remy's clammy, pale skin, glossy eyes, and growing silence proved that he was only getting worse by the second. "P-Piotr..." he heard the other man say through a shivering jaw. He looked back down to Remy, meeting his eyes. "You're... r-really cold... like dis..."

"Cold..? Oh." He quickly realized why. His body didn't hold any temperature in its metallic form. It probably wasn't the most comfortable thing to be resting against, either. "Hold on..." He stood still, closing his eyes and drawing in a slow breath. As he released it, he felt his flesh soften, and his body shrink. He was still strong enough, even in his normal form, to carry Remy, only now there would at least be body heat to help him.

But it didn't seem to. Remy still shivered in his arms, knitting his brow and smiling a little while sighing out, "M-maybe  _I'm_  just cold..." His tired eyes drifted shut for too long a time before opening again. That wasn't a blink. That was a fade.

"You are losing too much blood..." Piotr said gravely.

"You know... how t'hotwire a car?" Remy asked. 

Piotr took that hint. "Uh... only tractors and plows..."

"Same t'ing," Remy assured woozily. "Two red wires, brown one... Spark... Voila..." He very slowly blinked again.

While the thought of stealing a car made him feel guilty already, it was a matter of Remy's life. He started to look around, trying to spot any form of transportation he could use. His eyes settled on a old, red pickup truck. He walked up to it, looking in through the windows. The truck even had a blanket, folded up and draped over the back bench. It was good enough for him. "I have to put you down to get into this truck."

"S'fine... I barely feel dat anymore..." That was not reassuring to hear from him.

Once his hands were free, Piotr checked for any surrounding cameras. He felt incredibly lucky when he didn't see any. He shifted his arm to metal, then slammed it through the driver's side window to unlock the doors. Once he got the access cab open, he carefully lifted Remy back up. He didn't tense up as much, this time. His muscles felt tired and weak. Piotr held back the worry from showing on his face as he pulled the blanket down and wrapped Remy up. The man looked as though he was beginning to fade out again, so Piotr reached out and rubbed his uninjured shoulder. "Remy, stay awake."

Remy stirred, though still looked drowsy and disoriented. "I'm tryin'..."

Piotr swallowed tensely, then swung around to the front seat to start the process of hotwiring. He was fortunate that he found an older model. They were far easier to work with than those new 'push to start' cars.

"Maybe... if you keep talkin' to me..." Remy suggested. "N-never heard much 'bout your family... Never asked..."

Piotr glanced back over his shoulder. Really, the less he had to think about them right now, the better, but he couldn't just ignore Remy's request. "... My brother is a cosmonaut. He is part of the experimental space travel program."

"No shit..." Remy actually sounded surprised. Something about hearing an emotion other than feigned casualness was comforting for Piotr. Perhaps this would work.

"Yes, though he does not keep in close contact with us anymore. I do not mention him often because of it." Piotr bit his lip as he carefully stripped the wires. "My sister, she is also a mutant, though her powers are dormant." He could still remember every little detail about her face. He missed her bright and happy warmth so much. "The last time I saw her, she was barely as tall as my hips. She must have grown so much by now..."

"Kids tend to do dat..." Remy said quietly, his voice becoming breathy. "I'm... I'm sure she misses you..."

"As I miss her." Piotr steadily brought the wires together to make a spark and start the engine, taking only a couple of tries before succeeding. "You never speak about your family, you know." He shut the driver-side door and began to drive.

"G-good reason for it. No family..." Remy looked distantly at his bloody hand. "... Not anymore. So just keep talkin' 'bout yours... Got parents, right..?"

Well, if talking would keep him awake, then Piotr was prepared to talk to him about everything. It was going to be a little while until they were at Xavier's, anyway.

But in the end, talking could only do so much.

After a while, Remy stopped answering. When Piotr looked in the rear-view mirror at him, he saw what have been mistaken for a corpse, had he not seen his eyes flutter. The sense of urgency and panic rose with every second of eerie silence. Once he was out of any populated streets, he floored it to get there as fast as he could. Remy couldn't afford another second.


	5. Running On Fumes

At this time of night, the Institute was usually silent with slumber. Tonight seemed no different as Rogue sat alone in the dark sitting room, browsing the internet on her phone. She preferred the quiet to the usual sound of chaos that inevitably accompanied hundreds of mutants living in one building. In the quiet, she could actually think. Thinking was her form of self-therapy, where she could filter through everything to sift out the bullshit and focus on the positive. These days, you  _had to_. Scrolling aimlessly on her phone helped her to zone out after all that.

After a chain of tired yawns, she finally decided to go to sleep. She tucked her phone into her pocket, standing up into a long stretch. She had to wake up early tomorrow, after all. She had to snag concert tickets for herself, Kitty, and Kurt as soon as they went on sale in the morning.

It was amazing, how fast all those thoughts of tomorrow flew right out of her head as soon as she heard a loud crashing in the distance. It sounded like it was coming from the direction of the gate. Seconds after, the alarms went off. That meant it was time to suit up, not to sleep.

As she ran to the elevator to get to her equipment, she was met in the hallway by Kitty, whose hair gave away the fact that she had literally stumbled out of bed. "What's going on?!" the younger of the two asked urgently.

Rogue shook her head. "I don't know... I heard somethin' crash through the gates!"

"It had better not be Lance!" Kitty pouted in frustration. "The way he drives..."

"Look who's talkin'," Rogue chided light-heartedly.

"Let's move!!" Scott waved them toward the elevator, holding it open for them as they caught up.

It took everyone mere minutes to get ready, and a full team of eight headed out to the front courtyard: Scott, Rogue, Kitty, Kurt, Hank, Ororo, Xavier and Logan. When they walked out, they were all on edge. No one came to crash down the gates if they just wanted a cup of sugar, right?

In front of the fountain in the courtyard, just beyond to front steps, was a crookedly parked red truck. Sticking out of the back door was Colossus, shiny and metal and tugging something out of the backseat. As they stood at the top of the stairs, Rogue noticed something about Xavier's demeanor change. He looked more troubled than suspiscious.

"What's are you  _doing_  here, Colossus?!" Scott questioned distrustingly as he got into stance, prepared to knock him down at long distance before he could get close for any damage.

Logan held his hand up to stop Scott from touching his visor. "Hold on, kid. Somethin's not  _right_." His nose crinkled to take in a scent he'd picked up. When his eyes widened, and he gave a quick glance to Rogue. She had the feeling something was  _very_  wrong.

Colossus stepped back from the truck, holding something wrapped in a large blanket. "Help!" Piotr shouted out once he was within earshot. "Please! Help!!"

What was in his arms became dreadfully clear within seconds. Drenched in blood and sweat, and draped in Colossus' arms like a lifeless body, was Gambit. His arm dangled limply, an ominous trail of blood dripping from his fingers. "Oh my God!" Rogue gasped, breaking into a sprint toward them before Logan could stop her. Hank was quick to follow, his instincts as a medical professional kicking into full gear.

Colossus slipped down to his knees as the gap between him and the others closed, and Hank swept in to use both hands to support Gambit's head. Logan, Kurt, and Ororo joined them, while Scott stayed back with Kitty, both looking on in horror. Xavier, too, stayed at the top of the stairs to watch with growing worry.

"What on earth happened?!" Ororo pressed, looking at the shocking state the two were in.

Colossus struggled to answer, "There was an explosion... He was..."

"We don't have time to get the details," Hank objected, already checking Gambit's eyes with a penlight. The glow they normally held was noticeably dimmed. He checked Remy's pulse by holding his wrist for a few seconds. "He's barely hanging on." He turned to look over his shoulder. "Scott! Get the back board from the supply closet and meet me inside!" Scott nodded, darting back inside. Kitty ran after him, vanishing past the steps. "Ororo, get down to the medical lab and get the surgical suite ready!" She gave him a nod and ran off, herself. Hank then spun back to Piotr. "Are  _you_  injured?" Piotr shook his head. "Alright... Hold onto his legs. I'll hold his shoulders."

Colossus shook his head to object. "O-one of them is--"

Hank interrupted with, "Is hurt, I know, but we have to move him now!" Shaken, but understanding, Colossus nodded, and the two started to lift Gambit up. "He's not conscious. He won't be able to feel it," he tried to reassure the younger mutant.

"I-I'll get the oxygen tank!" Kurt said nervously. He teleported off, disappearing into purple smoke.

Rogue could only watch as they hoisted him up. He hung like there was nothing left in him. Her stomach did hurdles just seeing him like that. She couldn't even imagine what could have happened to leave him looking so rough, but it had to be something serious. She trailed close behind them, trying to keep her eyes on Gambit as much as possible.

Once everyone was inside, Scott met them and positioned the back board below Gambit. Kurt caught up with the oxygen tank, already prepared with the attached mask. Hank and Colossus very carefully lowered him onto the board. Hank quickly began securing the belts to hold Remy safely to the board. "Oxygen mask," Kurt slipped in with ease and put the oxygen mask over Gambit's mouth. Hank took care of the rest, tugging the securing band behind Gambit's head. "Scott, help me carry him."

"No," Colossus insisted, his hand reaching down and holding onto Gambit's. "I can--"

"You've been through  _enough_. Stay here." Hank put his hand on Colossus' shoulder.

"You've done everything you can, Colossus," Xavier reasoned calmly.

Scott stepped in to take his place, and Colossus reluctantly let him. As the two lifted Gambit up, he tried to keep holding onto his hand, but the slick blood on metal made it impossible for his grip to stay. Gambit's fingers slipped right through his. They started for the elevator to the basement levels, and Gambit became obscured behind Scott's back.

"What about me?" Rogue questioned, trying to hold back her tears as much as her shaking. "Can I do anything? I.. I took first aid like everyone else!"

"No way, Rogue," Logan stepped in, holding her back by her upper arm. "He's in the best hands." 

Hank appreciated the help from Logan with a small, stressed smile. "We'll let you know what happens as soon as we can," he said just before the elevator doors closed.

Rogue yanked out of Logan's hold, frustrated and emotionally wrung out. Her hand went up to cover her mouth, and she purposefully turned her face away from everyone and into the corner of the room. After a while, she couldn't stand feeling the eyes on her, and stormed away in emotional silence.

Piotr watched her leave, wondering just how well she seemed to know Remy. His thoughts were pulled away from that when he saw a towel offered into his line of sight. Following the towel to the person holding it out, he saw Kitty looking up at him sympathetically. They shared no words, just a look. In her eyes he could see just how much she felt sorry for him. Such compassion seemed to crack away at whatever emotional shell he had left. He gently took the towel from her hands, only able to mutter a quiet, "Thank you..." before breaking eye contact with her and starting the attempt of wiping away all the blood.

"Kurt," Logan barked, spotting Kurt trying to follow Rogue. That was an idea he wanted to nip in the bud. Kurt froze and turned around. "Not right now."

Kurt knit his brow tight, protesting. "But--"

"Not. Right. Now." Logan said again, this time far more stern.

"Why don't you go get a clean set of clothes from the spares room, Kurt." Xavier requested politely, and as calmly as he could manage, given the situation. Sighing, Kurt teleported away to fetch them.

Xavier rotated his chair to face Piotr, his expression sympathetic, but grave. "I am truly sorry about what you've been through, but I'm afraid we have to know what's going on." He directed toward the sitting room with his hand. "Please, perhaps you can tell us while Kitty makes some tea." Kitty took the hint and made her way for the kitchen.

 


	6. True Motives

Before he sat down on their couch, Piotr shifted back to his normal form, so his weight wouldn't destroy the furniture. He sat there quietly for a little while, trying to wipe away every speck of blood now staining his skin. Staring at just how much of it there was to clean only made him worry even more about Remy. Those last glimpses of his expressionless face, so pale and weak, were still vibrantly printed on his mind. After a moment of weighing whether he should ask of not, Piotr looked to Xavier, and Logan leaning against the wall behind him. "What will happen to him?"

Logan was the one to answer, shrugging his shoulders. "Hank is a skilled surgeon, and Ororo has been training under him for a while now." He didn't look too optimistic, but he still said, "He's a tough guy. He has a good chance."

Xavier was patient with him. He gave Piotr a moment to take that in before asking his first question. "Now, Colossus, can you tell us what exactly happened to the two of you?" Xavier's tone was reasonable and measured, tactful in every word.

Piotr had to fight to speak, at this point. He was numb and tired. His mind sluggishly returned to source of all this: the mission, and Magneto's plans. His gut churned over the thought of what the Acolytes could have been doing to the senator, right now. However, telling them about those plans would be the last straw to Magneto for certain. Surely at that point he would actively seek revenge. Remy said the X-Men would be able to help, but he still wasn't so certain of that, himself. "I... I cannot... Magneto has my family. There is no telling what he would do to them if he knew I had helped you..."

Xavier leaned forward in his wheelchair, lacing his fingers under his nose. "I know this maybe difficult, but I promise you we will do everything in our power to make sure your family is rescued." Piotr stared into Xavier's eyes, judging how honest they were. "I have not read your thoughts, but I can tell there is something serious behind all of this. It's important that we find out what it is so we can stop it."

Piotr looked back down at his hands, now gripping the towel tight. Even past all his scrubbing, there was still blood. He knew, deep down, that if Magneto continued with his plans, there would only be more blood to wipe away. He knew how these things escalated. He knew how corruption and fascism were born. Closing his eyes, he made up his mind. "... Senator Kelly." Xavier's eyes widened with the mention of that name. "They have kidnapped him. They are planning to use a telepath to control him..." Logan stood up from the wall, in shock at the new information. Xavier lowered his hands to his wheelchair's armrests, mouth agape. "I do not know how much time he has left."

"Then it's critical that we get there as soon as possible." Xavier reasoned. "Where are they holding him?"

"At the Acolyte headquarters, I am certain." Piotr fidgeted with the towel. "I can give you the coordinates." Xavier gestured to a pen and pad on the table. Piotr picked them up and jotted the numbers down, handing them over. As the pad left his hands, it felt like the last chains attaching him to the Acolytes were being thrown off. He only wished those chains could be thrown off of his family, too.

An interruption in the form of a cloud of purple smoke, accompanied by the unique sound of Kurt's teleportation, stopped all conversation. He stood in the center of the room, with everyone's eyes suddenly on him, holding a stack of clothes in his arms. "Sorry that took so long, I had to find the biggest clothes we had in there!" He set them down on the table by the couch, then looked around at the faces staring at him. "Is... something wrong?"

Logan stepped forward. "We have a mission and not much time. Get Kitty and Scott. Tell them to get in the X-Jet and wait for me." Kurt only took a moment longer to look back at Piotr, able to tell how serious it was just by the expression on his face. He gave a cautious nod, then teleported away again. Logan took the pad of paper as Xavier handed it to him, then walked out of the room.

"I should go with you," Piotr asserted, though he was stopped from standing up by Xavier's hand.

"No. You may not have any  _flesh_   _wounds_ , but your mind still needs rest." Xavier turned his chair toward the archway, heading out, himself. "You have already done enough."

\--

It was like torture, sitting alone in silence. Sinjun's tapping foot was the only sound to be heard in the control room. He stared at the security camera feeds, muted by Victor, who had also taken the remote with him. Nothing moving, nothing happening. He could have fallen asleep! Restlessly, he hopped out of the swivel chair at the desk, pacing about the room. His nerves were shot, but his body was still so tense. "A walk would help," he muttered to himself, "Oh... but what about the cameras?" Innocently looking over his shoulder at the screens, he thought about it for about two seconds. "Aw, who  _cares?_  No one's comin'..." He made for the door. "I know just where to go for a good look at nature, too." Ooh, just thinking about Ms. Frost's magnificent curves make his skin tingle.

Being careful not to be seen or heard by anyone, he slunk through the hallway and toward the room he'd seen her and Kelly walk into. The door was cracked open just enough for a sliver of light to seep through. He stood as still as he could, leaning around the doorframe to sneak a peek.

There she was, sitting gracefully in a chair directly across from Kelly, who was slumped like he was asleep. She made even the act of brainwashing look like an evening party, sitting with her legs crossed and her wrists delicately draped over her knee. Sinjun could swear that her outfit was so tight it showed  _everything_. He almost bit his tongue when she casually un-crossed and re-crossed her legs. Leaning a little further to see all the details, Magneto came in to view, standing a few feet behind her. His heart turned to a rock, and he covered his mouth and swung around to hide behind the wall. He could hear Magneto begin to speak, and slowly peeked into the room again, far more cautious this time.

"I must say, I'm impressed with your skills, Ms. Frost," Magneto said with a tone of professional admiration. "I'm surprised Charles Xavier didn't snatch you up while he was still a member of your club."

Ms. Frost's lips quirked into a small, elegant smile. "He tried, of course, but I know where real opportunity lies. I turned him down." She fanned her fingers in a dismissive motion. "He already has a pet telepath, anyway."

"Xavier is a fool," Magneto scoffed. "He has tried and failed too many times in his pointless search for peace. You and I know better. You could make such greater strides toward a new world with the Acolytes, as opposed to lingering about in social clubs."

Ms. Frost's expression soured, like she had just been insulted and bored at the same time. "Don't delude yourself, Erik. I know what shambles you and your group are in." She turned to glance back at him, eyes half-shut impassively. "Make no mistake, I am here on behalf of the  _Hellfire Club_ , whose interests - at the  _moment_  - happen to align with yours. Our end-goals are quite different."

Magneto tilted his head incredulously. "Are we? Something tells me you care about your kind far more than your club ever will."

She turned her head back to Kelly, looking freshly confident. "Things change."


	7. Waiting

She was left alone this time. She assumed she'd have Logan to thank for that. He always  _did_  know when she wanted space. Still, after a while, that loneliness made room for all the emotions to tear through her guard. She used a pillow against her face to let out a few screams, muffling them to the point of not escaping the room. After the release, the emotions died down. Then there was just the loneliness. Just fifteen minutes ago she would have welcomed the quiet. Things were different now. She had to talk to  _someone_.

When she couldn't spot Kurt right away, she went looking for Kitty, instead. Heading down the main stairs, she started to hear Colossus' deep voice, along with Xavier and Logan's. She stopped a few feet shy of being within sight of them, but knew she was probably sensed already. Logan could smell and as for Xavier, well, he just  _always knew_. She heard them talking about Piotr's family, then something about Senator Kelly being kidnapped. Magneto was up to something terrible, from the scant details she overheard. Brainwashing? Just when she thought the guy was leveling out...

Logan came around the corner, and sure enough, looked at her like he knew how much she'd heard. "No, you're not coming along," he preemptively dictated with his usual gruff tone.

Rogue crossed her arms and jutted out her hip. "I wasn't gonna ask. I have to stay here." She looked back toward the elevator, the last place she'd seen Remy. "I can't just leave him without knowin'..."

The look Logan gave her was a surprise. She thought he hated Remy, just like he hated most people, but he looked sympathetic. Maybe that was more for her. He didn't say anything, instead just putting his hand on her shoulder and nodding. She looked away to wipe off a few stray tears near her eyes as Logan left. She hated how easily he saw through her, sometimes.

She walked to the kitchen, seeing Kitty and Kurt both talking to each other. They looked her was with concern, unsure of how she was feeling. She waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry, I know what's goin' on. I'm sittin' this one out."

Kurt's face conveyed only the deepest concern as he took a few steps towards her. He held one of her gloved hands and gave it a little squeeze. "Are you going to be okay alone?"

She chuckled, clearing her throat afterward and pulling a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm  _not_. Got a big hunk of steel to give tea to, right?"

Kitty knit her brow and curved her lips into a small empathetic smile. "The tea's already in the pot. Make sure to have some yourself." Looking satisfied in Rogue's wellbeing, she made for the elevator. Kurt shared another little look with Rogue, then let her hand go, following Kitty. "Wish us luck, okay?" she said over her shoulder.

"Good luck," Rogue complied.

Once they were gone, that smile vanished from her face. She looked over to the tea set, which had already been prepared with cookies and cups. Kitty had even placed the cookies in a cute spiral pattern on the plate. She took a few minutes to just stare at it, too anxious to finally go and talk to the relative stranger left alone in the sitting room.

But the truth was that she needed to talk to him. She needed to know how this happened. After taking in a nice, deep, steadying breath, she picked up the tray and walked across the main hall.

When she got there, the room was empty. The only thing left there was the bloodstained towel, laying in a pile on the coffee table. She looked around in bewilderment. Where the hell did he get off too so quick? She set the tea tray down on the coffee table, trepidatiously taking the towel into her hands. The stains were in shades varying from bright red to dark brown. That meant he must have been bleeding for a long while. She knit her brows tight when she unfolded it, exposing just how much blood had been collected on it. "God..." she sighed under her breath.

The bathroom door across the room opened wide, the swiftness of it managing to make her yelp in surprise as she spun around. In the doorway stood Colossus, only he wasn't as big and - well -  _steely_. He was still big, though, with the top of his head only an inch or so from the top of the frame. His face looked just as startled as hers, though that was probably more due to her loud squawk than anything. He was wearing a pair of drawstring sweatpants and a shirt that was honestly maybe a little too tight, in a room that was honestly a little bit too cold. Her eyes were drawn to his chest for a second before she shook her head and cleared her throat. "Uh.. S-sorry. You scared me, burstin' outta there..."

He looked almost a little guilty about that, apologetically saying, "I'm sorry. I didn't know anyone was out here."

The two stood in unbearably awkward silence until Rogue gestured to the tea set, the towel still in her hands. "I brought some tea." Realizing what she was waving around, she tensed up, then tossed it away. It landed in the small wastebin near the archway. "Your name's...  _Piotr_ , right?" She had recalled Kitty saying something about that.

Piotr walked to the couch, nodding. "I have only ever heard you called 'Rogue'. That is your name?"

"Well, sorta," Rogue glanced away rather shyly. "It's what I like bein' called." She shrugged as she sat down on the couch. He sat down next to her, but spaced apart. "Which name do  _you_  prefer?"

"... Piotr is fine," he admitted, glancing her way like a nervous puppy. Kitty wasn't lying when she called him a softie. It was obvious from every inch of him.

She waited another stilted tick before pouring tea into the two cups. "Listen, I know you just had to get asked a bunch of questions, but... I need to know some things, myself. About you an' Gambit." Piotr looked a little worn out at the idea, but still gave her the nod to consent. "Thanks," she smiled faintly at him while handing him a cup on its saucer. He took it like it was made of tissue paper. "How well do you know Gambit, anyhow?"

After taking a small sip from the tea, Piotr tilted his head. "We worked together more than we talked to each other. Magneto preferred to keep it that way." He shrugged his shoulders just a little. "Well... he talked to me more than any of the others. I certainly trust him the most..."

"Yeah, guess that explains why you came all this way for him, right?" Rogue watched his face, seeing a reaction of thoughtful agreement. "I know what Magneto's plan is. I heard y'all talkin' about it." She picked up her own cup, looking down into the leaf infused water. "I need to know... Was Gambit willing to go that far?"

Piotr offered the answer relatively fast with an earnest shake of his head. "No... He seemed to think it would only spell disaster for mutants everywhere. He and I shared that feeling."

That was a big relief. Rogue felt bad about doubting it. She may have not known too much about him, but Gambit always seemed like the type to value freedom more than anything. "Is that why you had to turn to us?"

"I... I am not sure I would have." Piotr seemed ashamed to admit that, lowering his cup and closing his eyes. "Remy insisted that we come here. I think he believes your people can help."

"Help your family, right?" Piotr confirmed it to her with a silent bob of his head. "I know Xavier wouldn't lie about it, if that helps." She didn't know exactly what kind of trouble his family was in, but she knew just by looking at him that they were his entire world. She had to admire that. "Y'know... Not many people care about their family as much as you do. Not many people would risk so much to save a man's life, either. I think you deserve better than what Magneto put you through. You don't deserve to be used by him, or by anybody."

"I..." Piotr stared at her for a few seconds, blinking. "Thank you." His face softened gratefully.


	8. The Rescue

Being co-pilot on the X-Jet usually gave his time to think and relax, which was just what he needed before a high-risk mission. The view of the Adirondack Mountains should have helped even more. This time, though, Scott's mind couldn't focus on a single thing. There was just too much information to reign in. Everything had been only been getting worse since Apocalypse. Anti-mutant senators like Kelly were winning in the polls by near-landslides. If that didn't show just how humans felt about his kind, he didn't know what could. Would any of their efforts  _ever_  be enough to convince them? He couldn't count the number of times he and other X-Men had put their lives on the line just to save humans, and never once did they seem to actually  _remember it_  once something scary came along.

He eventually had to wonder if any of this was worth it. Would it really end up helping mutant-kind?  _"As opposed to **what** , Scott, Magneto's plan?"_ he thought to himself, very shortly after feeling an icy pit in his gut when he honestly couldn't deny the sense in Magneto's actions. If he could stop people from being bigoted, violent, fear-mongering zealots, should he be stopped?

"Scott," Xavier's clear and calm voice pulled him from his train of thought. When he looked back to the older man, he could see a look of concern on his face. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," Scott answered quickly. Xavier hadn't sensed any of that, right? He felt the same anxiety he always did - the absolute fear of disappointing the man who had raised him. He cleared his throat and looked ahead.  _"Don't turn into one of them, Scott... You have to keep Xavier's dream alive... What would Jean say?"_

Boy, did he wish she was here next to him now instead of at college. He always worried about how safe she would be in New York City, surrounded by the hotbed of anti-mutant and pro-mutant opinions. Maybe if she were here instead, she could at least remind him what good humans had for the world.

"We're almost there," Logan piped up. "Let's land out of sight. Get closer on foot."

"Agreed." Xavier said with a nod. He looked over his shoulder at Kurt. "Since Jean isn't with us, I'm going to need you to teleport me along the way."

"Of course, Professor!" Kurt smiled wide and gave a thumbs up. "We just get in, grab the senator, then get out, right?"

"That's the plan." Logan seemed a little more focused on landing the X-Jet in the tight clearing between clumps of forest than talking too much.

"Our biggest concern will be Magneto and the telepath he's brought," Xavier explained, "I cannot sense then, so there's no telling just how powerful they may be. Be prepared for anything."

\---

Victor's roar was primal and furious, and the force behind the shove he pinned Sinjun to the wall with nearly knocked the air entirely out of him. His head rattled for a second as he heard Victor shouting, "You idiot! You left your post to  _peep_?!"

"R-Relax, mate!" Sinjun pleaded, hands up defensively. "No one's comin'! No one knows we're even here!" Before he could say another word, Victor stopped him with a back-handed slap.

"If you had been looking at the feeds like you were supposed to, you would have seen them coming!" Victor dropped him to the ground, but he was left too dizzy from the hit to stay entirely upright, instead leaning against the wall in a slump. "Everything is at risk, now!"

"What's the b-big deal? We can just take care of them, right?" Sinjun rubbed his sore cheekbone with a pout.

"There are four of them,  _and_   _Xavier_." Victor clenched his hands into tight fists. He turned to walk away, toward the room Magneto, Ms. Frost, and Kelly were in.

That wasn't good news. Sinjun stared at him for a second, then looked down and to the side. He muttered quietly under his breath. "None'a this would have happened if you didn't leave the others behind..."

Victor spun on a dime, eyes wide and fiery with pure rage. "Say that again!" He lunged toward him. Sinjun was just barely able to dive out from underneath him and roll away. "I won't warn you again!! I'll--..." He stopped, stiffened like a thought had just been forced into his head. "I..."

Sinjun kept his eyes locked on Victor in bewilderment. He looked like he'd just been... turned  _off_.

A white gloved hand slipped up over Victor's shoulder. From behind him came Ms. Frost. Magneto emerged from the room after her. "Honestly, all the screaming makes it ever so much more difficult to finish my work." She traced her fingers along Victor's stupefied face, tapping him teasingly on the chin. From the main hall, the sound of a blast echoed loudly. "We have visitors, I take it?"

Sinjun could only nod awkwardly at her.

She put her hands on her hips with a 'tut-tut' from her teeth. "I won't be able to finish my work on the senator with them mucking about." She snapped her fingers in front of Victor's eyes. "No more fighting yourselves. Fight the  _intruders_."

Victor looked like he had just been woken up from a dream, but when he did, he didn't show a single sign of anger toward Sinjun. He simply nodded his head understandingly to Ms. Frost, then just started heading toward the source of the noise. Sinjun wobbled to his feet, rubbing the back of his head. "Thank you for.. uh... Whatever that was, Ms. Frost," he said with a smirk.

"I didn't do it for you. I did it to deal with a giant, smelly, oaf of a man who wouldn't know strategy if it bit him on the nose," she said coldly. "Go deal with the intruders before they walk right in."

He could feel a little something in the back of his head telling him to do exactly as she said. She knew best. "Right!" He gave a toothy grin, then prepped his fuel lines and rushed after Victor.

"Stay with the senator," Magneto ordered Frost, sounding just a little displeased with her assertion of authority. She was already on her way back to the room before he finished the sentence. "I will ensure they do not reach you."

\---

Scott climbed in over the bent and torn sheet of steel that he'd just blasted through, stepping out of the way for Logan, Kurt, and Xavier. Making enough noise to draw their attention would hopefully give Kitty enough time to slip in, grab the senator, then leave. Within a couple of sniffs, Logan already knew what direction they'd be coming from, but before he could speak, Sabertooth burst forth from the shadows, tackling him to the ground.

"Protect the professor!" Logan gave as an order. Scott and Kurt quickly moved to cover both sides of Xavier's wheelchair and get him away from the action. 

Scott poised his hand at his visor's dial, ready to lift his lens and blast a bolt of concussive force right into the enemy's head, then his vision was obscured by a plume of fire only inches from his face. He flung himself backward from instinct, falling flat on his back. He could already hear Pyro laughing, that  _maniac_.

Logan kicked Sabertooth in the gut, flinging him over his head and back outside. He leapt out there, right after him, probably to keep their fight from spilling into the new one forming.

Just as the fight was really getting started, with Scott landing a pretty choice hit on Pyro's gut, the floor bowed beneath them - the  _metal_  floor. Magneto hovered above them, glowering down at them like insects. He focused his sights on the professor, saying with feigned courtesy, "Charles, I didn't expect you to be here. I assumed you would let your lackeys bring the senator to your doorstep."

"I came in the hopes I could talk some sense into you!" Professor Xavier's tone was like that of a chiding brother, hinting at the long history the two had. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"

"Don't try to question my methods," Magneto growled, "Your attempts at making peace with humans have lead to absolutely nothing. Look at the world! We are in more danger now than ever before!"

"And because of that you would resort to  _mind control_?!" Xavier snapped back.

Magneto made the floor beneath Kurt and Xavier whip upward, sending each flying in a different direction. Kurt landed head-first against the wall, plopping dazed to the floor. Xavier toppled out of his chair, helpless on the ground.

"Professor!!" Scott found himself distracted enough to actually get caught off guard, with a puff of controlled fire whipping at his face. He threw his arms up in defense, letting them take the brunt of the heat. It burnt through the fabric, scalding the skin. "Aagh!!"

"Hey!!" Kurt shouted toward Pyro to grab his attention away from Scott, who had stumbled back against the wall. Pyro aimed his flames at him, but of course they slipped right through a purple cloud of nothing. Teleporting just behind him, Kurt yanked on the fuel lines, pulling them free from the gauntlets, and all with a coy little smile on his face.

"Aw, you little!!" Pyro spun to grab him, but before he could, he had already teleported to rejoin his teammates. Once he had spun back around, Scott met him with a blast right to the chest. He flew backward and into the crates behind, leaving everything in a pile of broken wood with only his feet sticking out from it.

"You hypocrite!" Magneto hissed at Xavier, who now lay on the ground directly below him. "You would lecture  _me_  on mind control when you  _yourself_  have haphazardly wiped memories to cover your very mutant  _existence_?!"

Xavier looked taken aback by that, silenced. Magneto claimed his victory by wrapping the professor up in a sheet of metal pried from the floor, completely immobilizing him. The sheet of metal tightened up, forcing out a groan from Xavier.

Scott turned his blast to Magneto, this time, and since he was preoccupied with trying to hold the professor in his grip, he didn't move to dodge the bolt aimed right at his head. The concussive blast hit his helmet dead on, jostling it noticeably. Now distracted by the helmet, and the probably headache he was just given, Magneto stopped focusing on the professor.

"His-.. helmet!!" Xavier shouted.

Kurt might have been dizzy, but he knew what that meant. Just like Juggernaut. He teleported up and onto Magneto's shoulders. Before the other mutant could reach up to gab him, Kurt had already snatched the helmet and teleported back to the ground.

"Using your powers to have advantage over others  _again_ , are you?!" Magneto snarled, now exposed. He knew Xavier's intent, and moved to crush him in the metal, but Xavier was too fast. Scott watched as Magneto clutched his head and let out a scream, halted abruptly with his loss of consciousness. He fell limp to the floor, his cape floating down to rest over him like a blanket.

Kurt tossed the helmet aside, clapping his hands free of dirt. "Hah! He's even tucked in!" Though, once he remembered, he dove to Xavier, grabbing him and teleporting him out of the metal sheet.

"Th-thank you," Xavier said, rubbing his temple with his now freed arm.

Logan climbed in through the hole Scott had left in the wall, with an unconscious Sabertooth slung over his shoulder. "Just  _had_  to knock him out before I could, huh?" he grumbled, tossing Sabertooth into the pile of wood with Pyro.

Scott and Kurt helped Xavier back into his chair, and once he was settled, he gave a look of resolution to the group. "Kitty's taken too long. Something must have happened!"


	9. The Status Quo

Xavier had said before that he couldn't sense the presence of a telepath, and Scott had briefly hoped that meant they'd run off. That wasn't the case when Logan cut the door to the locked room open with his claws. At his feet lay Kitty, unconscious and curled into a fetal ball. As Kurt knelt down to help hold her, Scott spotted the cause right away. She stood in the center of the room, in front of Kelly, with her eyes cutting into all of them with focused malice. She didn't look much older than him, but she did look a lot  _fancier_.

"Emma Frost?!" Xavier said, wide eyed.

"You know her?!" Logan questioned.

She pursed her lips, unimpressed. "You bring me a hairy barbarian and children? You've had trouble recruiting haven't you, Charles?"

"Why is everyone  _pretending_  to be polite?!" Kurt griped in frustration.

"They're called manners. You clearly don't have them." She crossed her arms. "There's no point in stopping this, Charles." She stepped out of the way, showing the inert Kelly behind her. "I've already molded his mind into something new."

"Whatever you've done, I can fix," Xavier said with utter confidence. "Don't make us fight you, Emma." His fingers slipped up to rest at his temple. Each of the others also took up stance, ready to fight if need be. "Let the senator go."

Emma scoffed, shaking her head. "You really are clueless, aren't you?" Her brows furrowed into a sharp glare. "Nothing changes with complacency."

Xavier took that as the cue to attack. When he tried, however, Emma's body took on a whole new property. She looked to be made of solid diamond, glittering under the florescent light. Her expression became cold and empty, and so did her mind. He looked on in shock.

She didn't waste a moment. She wasn't intent on fighting, simply leaving. She rushed past all of them, shoving Logan aside as if he was lighter than a feather. Scott was just barely able to move out of her way as she ran past him, and the two locked eyes for one single fleeting moment before she leapt out of the complex through its glass ceiling. Kitty started to stir, which told Scott that whatever that woman had done to her, it must have stopped after she'd turned to diamond.

"Ugh... My head feels like a rock...!" Kitty groaned. Kurt smiled with relief and rubbed her shoulder.

"Augh..." Logan grunted as he sat up. "She always been able to do that?"

"Not that I've ever known..." Xavier looked up at the shattered glass. Slowly, he looked back to Kelly. "We should get the senator out of here before the Acolytes wake up."

\---

Things were much quieter in both volume and action on the X-Jet. Scott sat in the back of passenger compartment to tend to his burns with the first-aid kit. With him was Xavier, who was tending to Kelly. He watched the look of utter concentration on the professor's face, but managed to see the conflict behind all of it. He knew exactly why, too. Xavier wasn't just wiping a memory or putting someone to sleep. He was turning a man anti-mutant  _intentionally_. That couldn't be easy. It didn't sit easy with Scott, either.

"Professor... Is this really the right thing to do?" he finally asked.

Xavier opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder at Scott, brows knit subtly in slight discouragement. "I know it may be difficult to bear this man's thoughts of us, Scott, but you must remember that every person has the right to hold their own opinions."

He just couldn't settle with that answer. It seemed like more of the same. More  _complacency_. "Even if they could  _hurt people_? He could introduce  _laws_  against us!"

Xavier turned fully toward Scott in his chair, sighing quietly. "There are several people in the Senate who are far more level-headed than Kelly, I assure you. We cannot dictate how people  _think_ , Scott. Remember what the cost of that would be. Robbing someone of their own identity is something  _Apocalypse_  would have done, not us."

Now that... that was enough to make him quiet down. He sank into himself, suddenly overcome with shame. "I'm sorry... I don't know what I'm thinking... I'm just..." He could feel his eyes warming up with tears, and thanked his luck that they were hidden behind his visor. "I'm scared for us." He hung his head, looking down at his hands.

He saw Xavier's hand reach over to hold his. "I know. We're all scared for the future, but we can't let that rule how we see the world right now." He patted Scott's hands, returning to his work on Kelly. "There are  _good people_  out there. Remember that."

He would try, as hard as it was to believe sometimes.

It took Xavier an hour to fix everything Emma Frost had manipulated in Kelly's mind, during which Logan kept the X-Jet in stealth mode and flew around Bayville. Xavier made sure that Kelly would recall nothing from the night, and only remember the car crash having ended in an attack by wild wolves, not mutants. As much as he wanted Kelly to have his freedom of thought, he knew exactly how ferociously he would hunt them if he remembered any of this. Once that task was complete, Xavier had Kurt teleport the senator down to the back parking lot of the hospital, to make it seem as though he had wandered there.

\---

The morning light was beginning to glow in the sky as they arrived home. Rogue and Piotr were quick to meet them at the hangar. It wasn't as though they had been left with anything else to do but wait since the group had left, so she had kept herself busy by giving him a basic tour of the institute. Since he was changing sides and all, she saw it as just fine. Whatever kept her mind off of the fact that it had been nearly four hours with no news on Gambit.

She saw Kitty and Kurt walk off first, both looking way too tired to fill her in. Scott came out next, and he just looked like he didn't want to talk in general. Her hopes of hearing anything fell on Logan and Xavier, who left last, though Xavier looked rather exhausted, himself. She patted Piotr on the shoulder and nudged her head in their direction. He followed her over to the pair of faculty. "How did it go? Is everything fixed?"

"We can hope so," Xavier assured. He looked at Piotr for a second, a little surprised he was here. Oh, she hoped she wouldn't have to get an ear-full about giving guests tours again. She'd had enough of that after accidentally showing  _Mystique_  around. "While I was reading Magneto's thoughts, I was able to discern the location of your family, Piotr." With that sentence, Rogue saw Piotr's entire body language change to one of shock and joy. "First thing tomorrow morning, we can set about making arrangements for them to come to America."

"Professor Xavier... I do not know how to thank you enough." Piotr looked to be on the verge of tears.

She was so happy for him. Then Xavier had to go and force her thoughts back to Gambit by asking, "Has there been any update on Mr. LeBeau's condition?"

They didn't have to answer for him to understand, with how Rogue's head hung and Piotr's shoulders sank. "It's been hours and nothin'... I'm going out of my mind," she breathed out and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I'm sure we'll know soon." Logan rubbed his nose. "... The professor needs to rest, but I'll stay with the two of you until news arrives." He looked earnest about that. She smiled warmly at him for the kind thought.

He really held to it, too. He sat with them in the sitting room, filling them in on the details of the mission for another thirty minutes. He let them know as soon as he heard the elevator arriving from the basement. All three of them got up to meet whoever was coming out of it in the main hall.

Ororo was the one to emerge, looking absolutely drained. Her clothes had been freshly changed, and her hair was tied up in a messy bun. The look in her eyes already told Rogue that whatever news was coming, it wasn't going to be good. "Ororo is he--.." She couldn't bare to finish the sentence.

"Mr. LeBeau is still alive. He had to preform extensive surgery to remove the shrapnel from his spleen. We were lucky the damage was minimal enough to save it. But he is not out of the woods, yet." She took in a deep breath, steeling herself to deliver the final bit of information. "Unfortunately, due to blood loss during the operation, he has fallen into a coma." Rogue covered her mouth to stifle a gasp, while Piotr's eyes opened wide.

She felt ready to puke from the wave of emotions that hit her. She knew him, and he knew her better than most people ever  _could_. Shaking her head in disbelief, she felt Logan's arm wrap around her and give her a comforting squeeze.

"W-what do we do?" Piotr asked, hope in his tone. He looked absolutely desperate.

Ororo shook her head with sympathy. "All we can do for now is wait." She did, however, have a comforting offer to give. She placed her hands on both Kitty and Piotr's shoulders. "Hank is going to keep monitoring him until I can return in a few hours. I'm sure he wouldn't mind your company, and Mr. LeBeau could use the familiar voices."

"Thanks, Ororo..." Rogue said quietly, deflated. She wasn't looking forward to watching Remy slowly fade away, but if her just being there could help at all...


	10. Visiting Hours

Even after she tried to hide being assuring him she'd be fine, Logan still insisted on accompanying them to the medical bay. Something about his tone told her that he had experience with something she was dreading: seeing Gambit for the first time since he was brought here. She knew it wasn't going to look good. TV shows tried to make trauma look graceful, but from what she had learned from listening to Hank over the years, it was mainly tubes and bags and stitches.

When the doors to the medical bay opened, the sight still managed to hit her right in the chest and stopped her dead in her tracks.

He was in the priority care bed, positioned just outside Hank's office. The curtain surrounding him was only half-drawn from Hank being in the midst of writing down notes on a chart, leaving him in plain sight. A tube down his throat, another down his nose, an IV in his arm, and countless wires leading to electrodes on his bare skin. Those were just the first things she saw before Logan grounded her with a squeeze of her shoulder. "It's alright," he said quietly. She was right. He  _did_  know about this part.

She walked into the room, Logan giving her some space to approach him on her own. Of course, once they had walked in, Piotr had enough room to walk through the door, himself. He had quite the similar reaction to her. She supposed he'd never seen anyone like this before, either.

Turning back to the bed, she edged closer. The cuts on his face had been cleaned and treated, and apparently the ones on the right side of his face were bad enough to warrant covering his eye all together. Peeking out from under the crocheted blanket and sheets was a abdominal wrap of gauze, and under that was a thick pad of a bandage. She noticed they'd just been changed, with how pristine they were. There were honestly so many other little cuts and bruises, she couldn't taken them all in before Hank met her half-way to the bed.

"Rogue, Piotr, I see Ororo sent you." He gave a thumbs up behind Rogue's back. Logan spotted it, snuck him a nod, and slipped out of the room quietly. Hank then reached over with his other arm and took Piotr by the hand to guide him closer. "I know this probably looks scary."

"'Scary' is  _one_  way to put it..." Rogue quickly wiped her eyes before any tears could reach her cheeks.

Piotr, once close enough, moved to the edge of the bed on his own. He was speechless for a time, looking like he was trying to see his friend past all the tubes and bandages. He finally looked back to Hank, brows tensed into a worried curve. "What is this large patch for...? he was not bleeding there."

"An exploratory laparotomy to remove the shrapnel." Hank had no problems putting things concisely. As Rogue moved to the other side of the bed from Piotr, Hank further explained, "I stopped the bleeding. Now we're just giving him transfusions of D+ to replace what was lost."

Rogue tried to avoid looking directly at Gambit's face, instead looking down at his hand. She slid her gloved fingers over his, resting her hand there gently. "Do you have any idea how long it could take him to wake up?" She knew she was being optimistic, assuming he would wake up at all.

Hank preferred to be optimistic, as well, not even mentioning the chances of him not. "His body had been through so much that it has to work slow, right now. Once he's recovered more, then the chances of him waking up sooner than later will improve." He looked at the two of them sincerely. "Hearing familiar voices improves the chances even more, if you're willing to indulge him."

Piotr dilligently took Gambit's hand into his own. Even his masculine hands vanished in Piotr's larger ones. "I am... not usually talkative, but if it will help you, I will talk about everything I can..." His sights were focused attentively on his friend's only exposed, yet shut eye.

Well, if he could do it, so could she. "I ain't gonna stop talkin' til you wake up, either."

Hank looked touched by their instant effort, and pushed his reading glasses up his nose. "If anything happens, I'll be right over there in my office. I can see you from the window there." He pointed to the large observation window, which looked in on his desk and computer. After getting an understanding nod from each of them, he walked away.

Both of them pulled up chairs to sit beside the bed after a while. Time passed like a long blur, but a conversation with Piotr about Russian food and serving traditions kept her busy for a good two hours as the sun rose. Hank would come over every thirty minutes to update his notes and change the blood bag.

Now that she had spent some time with him and gotten used to the state he was in, she was able to really take in Gambit's face. Gambit... It didn't feel right to call him that, right now. There was no trench coat, no cards, no suit, and no staff. The only part of Gambit here was  _Remy_. She had never been able to see that below the cowl, he actually kept the sides of his head shaved short, while the top grew long. And she had to scoff in her head when she realized that never once had she actually seen his  _ears_. 

She started to notice Piotr dosing off around six in the morning. After Hank had told him to go get some rest, Piotr instead decided to stay in the infirmary and sleep on one of the other beds. Hank didn't mind, since there was only one of five beds actively needed. Rogue kept awake by having a couple cups of coffee, just to make sure Remy still had a voice to listen to.

"Y'know, I haven't been back to New Orleans since you took me there." She leaned against her arm, looking up at his face from the rail. "We sure made a huge mess there, didn't we? Couldn't walk ten feet without some sorta fight startin'." She huffed some hair out of her eyes, absent-mindedly looking up at the EKG monitor for a pause. Back then, he was so lively and bright. He didn't look a thing like that right now, and it made her heart ache. He didn't deserve this. "... Remy... Even though you went about it all wrong, I could tell back then that you were a good guy. So you had better wake up so I can tell that to your face, y'hear me?"

She stared at his face for a while after that, hoping that - just maybe - her stern order would have possibly worked. When he didn't move or react, she let reality sink back in and frowned. "Guess that was stupid to try, huh? But what could I say?" She sat up straight, squeezing his hand. "What can I say to just... wake you  _up_...?" Met still with only silence, she hung her head in defeat. "If you aren't gonna wake up, just make sure you don't die on me, alright?" She knew she'd wouldn't get the comfort of an answer, but as long as he was breathing, she could handle waiting.


	11. Bedside Manner

Coffee only went so far, and the next two hours took their toll. Despite her best attempts to stay awake, Rogue found herself drifting to sleep in her chair. She didn't know how much time she spent there, but the feeling of someone's hand taping her arm got her to jolt right awake. "Huh? Remy?!" Her mind jumped right to him having been the one to wake her, but that was shattered when she saw Ororo looking down at her. "Oh..." She rubbed her eyes, sitting up from her slouching. Her yelp woke Piotr, who sat up in bed with a jerk.

"Rogue, you're exhausted," Ororo exhaled. "You should go and sleep in your bed, not in this chair."

She might have been right, but that didn't make Rogue happy with it. "I can handle a night without sleep, okay?" She crossed her arms and looked back toward Remy. Same as he was the last time she looked.

"It is alright, Rogue," Piotr said as he stood up from bed. "I can stay with him while you sleep." He even gestured to the bed he'd just slept on, himself.

Ororo shook her head and pointed to him. "Not without getting any food, first." With an expression akin to that of a stern mother, she put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Both of you need to take some time for yourselves, now that you've given so much to Mr. LeBeau."

"We want to stay with him, Ororo," Rogue insisted. Piotr backed her up with a nod once he'd reached Remy's bed.

Even being met with their stubbornness, Ororo kept her resolve. "Oh?" She tilted her head. "Then I'm sure both of you wouldn't feel awkward at all staying here while I check Mr. LeBeau's catheter?" The smirk on her lips gave away that she knew just how uncomfortable that prospect left the two of them.

Rogue, now faced with that mental image, blushed bright red and looked away. "Um... Well, I guess that's better done in private, anyway..." Piotr, who was just as flushed, didn't even have words to answer with. "F-Fine! We'll go, we'll go..." Rogue tossed her hands up. She grabbed Piotr by the hand as she passed Ororo to get to the door.

She might have been tired, but opening the elevator only to be met with the smell of freshly cooked bacon made her far more hungry. She decided to stick out the exhaustion for at least some toast. Besides, Piotr could use the escort, lest he get dropped amidst the absolute chaos of the morning routine on his own. She could already see Amara, Jamie, Bobby, and Roberto crowding at the table. As the two walked across the main hall to get to the kitchen, the sounds of a conversation at the table became clear.

"Two weeks of maintenance duty just for breakin' a wall or two! This is a pain in the back..." Rogue knew that voice, and that thick Kentucky accent. Sam must have just gotten his chores for the day. "I didn't even break the gates, but I gotta fix 'em!" Sam emerged from the archway leading to the kitchen, turning around with his eyes indignantly closed. "Least the big guy didn't crash the truck he stole through them..!" Then he opened them and froze up. Right in front of him stood Piotr, and even though Sam was tall, the Russian was still noticeably taller. He took a step back, intimidated simply by the surprise. "U-uh... Hey!" He awkwardly pointed a finger-gun at him, then edged around to leave. Piotr watched him in utter confusion as he left in a hurry through the front door.

Rogue, after watching Sam vanish out the front, started wondering about a little detail in that story. "Wait... You  _didn't_  crash through the gates with the car?"

Piotr turned, still a little confused. "Hm? Yes. I pulled them open on my own."

"Why?" she had to ask.

"Well..." Piotr glanced to the side. "I worried that the crash would only hurt Remy more." All she could do toward that was smile. Piotr really was just the sweetest thing.

After getting themselves together, the two worked out a schedule. They would take 'shifts' to keep Remy company, while the other could take care of personal needs. They'd perfected it by the end of the day, with Rogue taking the late-night shift with Hank, and Piotr taking the early-morning shift with Ororo.

When she came back the second day, she could tell things were turning for the better. Remy had some more color to his skin, and had even begun to breathe on his own. She much preferred to see him laying there  _without_  a tube in his mouth. The bandages on his face had been removed as well, and while the stitched up cuts beneath them looked like they must have hurt, they were closed and healing decently, according to Ororo and Hank. Ororo was apparently so good with stitches that Hank said there wouldn't even be very big scars left by them.

Kitty and Kurt came in briefly to visit at one point, dropping off some books and dvds to keep Rogue busy. Kurt had  _guessed_  that Remy would like anything set in Louisiana, which was charmingly silly to Rogue. Looking through the collection, she spotted her paperback copy of  _Interview With The Vampire_. She'd read it so often that it would be a breeze to read aloud.

Reading a book aloud to someone who was unconscious was certainly easier than she thought it would be. She started to dive right back into the setting, immersing herself more as she read through the pages. Eventually, she even began to tack on the tones and affects of the characters, just to make sure they were differentiated. If Remy  _was_  listening, she didn't want him confused. Of course, all that zipped right back up whenever anyone else was around. She didn't want to look like some crazy person reading to a coma patient like a child in bed, even if it sometimes felt that way. Maybe that was just her mind trying to sweeten the situation. He was still in serious condition, even if he no longer looked like death warmed over.

When the time came for Piotr to take over for the evening shift, Rogue had already gathered her things up in a book bag, but she still had the paperback in her hands. He spotted it and pointed to it curiously. "Huh?" She looked at it, then shrugged. "I'm just readin' it to keep my voice goin'." She tried to dismiss it by shaking her head with a breathy chuckle. "Not sure he's even into this kinda stuff."

"No," Piotr interrupted her, tapping on the book cover more purposefully. "This title. I know it. Remy mentioned a movie with the same name." She stood there, a little dumbfounded. "He would talk about this  _'Lestat'_  character quite often."

"You're...  _serious_?" She raised both brows. Well, the man and the fictional character did have  _some_  personality traits in common, she supposed. "Well, if that's the case, I got a lot more where this came from."

"There is more than one book?" he asked, curious.

"Oh yeah, whole series of 'em." She flipped the book open to the chronological list. The ones she already owned were highlighted in pink. She had collected up until 'The Vampire Armand'.

"Let us hope he wakes up after just the one," Piotr comforted. With the topic raised, he reached under his arm to grab a large hardcover. "I brought my own book, as well." He held up the thick coffee table book. Its cover read:  _Boris Kustodiev and the History of Russian Stage Painting_. She was a little surprised that Piotr had such classy tastes, but more light-heartedly worried the book might convince Remy to keep sleeping. "I did not know Professor Xavier had such an expansive library!" he mused.

She hid any reservations behind pursed lips and a thoughtful nod. "That's uh... Really somethin'! Good luck readin' it all." Piotr was utterly oblivious to any possible reservations and smiled back earnestly. She watched him sit down next to Remy before she left.

The next hours she spent with him were filled by her readings. She was going at a pretty good pace, too. By the next evening, she had already reached the scene where Louis turns Madeleine.

 " 'Hold fast to me when I take you,' I said to her, seeing her eyes grow wide, her mouth open," she read, " 'And when the swoon is strongest, listen all the harder for the beating of my heart. Hold and say over and over," I will live. " ' " As she changed her tone to match Madeleine's excitement, she breathed out, " 'Yes, y--' " The curtain around her pulled open, shocking her into a yip, then silence. She held the book page-in to her chest.

Piotr looked on for a couple of seconds, then cleared his throat. "I am sorry for interrupting. It was time for me to take over."

She felt like she wanted to crawl under the bed. Blushing horribly, she put a hand over her eyes and hung her head. "Oh, for... I knew I should'a kept the curtain open..." But then she spotted it. From below her hand she saw Remy's arm in the corner of her vision. She was certain of it. He'd just moved his arm. "Remy..?" She put the book aside, leaning closer to him to keep her eyes on his arm. Piotr followed her gaze to it.

The pause was thick with suspense, then...

The hand moved again.


	12. Rise And Shine

The last thing he could remember was the sound of Piotr screaming for help. One moment he was being carried toward the sound of water, the next he was on a bed under a bright light. Something on his face was blasting cold, prickly air up his nose and down his throat. It was uncomfortable enough for him to try and pull it off. A large blue hand stopped him before he could. "Mr. LeBeau? Can you hear me?"

 _"Barely,"_  he meant to say, but probably only thought, given Beast's lack of reaction. He fought harder to speak next. He had to ask about those cries for help, which had left him with an icy pit in his gut. "P... Piotr? Is Piotr..?"

He heard Storm's voice next. "He's fine. He brought you here. Do you know where you are?"

The words were there, but he couldn't put them together to really understand what she'd just said. He was so tired. "Heard him... screamin'..." Everything started to tilt back and forth, and his eyelids became too unbearably heavy. it suddenly felt as if he was endlessly sinking into the bed beneath him. His vision faded back to black, and all sound muddled into incomprehensible garble. Eventually, he stopped hearing anything, stuck in a quiet, dark place.

Was this what dying felt like? Cold and quiet, like a still night on the ocean shore? He drifted there, caught in nothing and unable to move an inch for what felt like hours. No sign of any pearly gates or fiery pits. How long did this sort of thing take? He tried to scream over and over, but nothing came out. All the effort got him was a very sore throat. Even his  _nose_  was sore, somehow. He resigned himself to staying there, trying hard not to drive himself insane wondering how long it would be before any change.

Maybe this was purgatory. Maybe his sins had finally caught up with him. Maybe this was going to be forever...

"Hey, you," A voice broke through the nothing, hitting his ears like a gentle breeze. He tracked the direction of the sound to his right. Rogue's face looked back down at him. He realized his head was resting on her lap. The brightening sky behind her haloed her hair with light. Her smile was serene and warm, like a sunrise.

"... Where  _am I_ , cher?" he asked, voice returning to him at last.

She didn't answer, continuing on as if she hadn't heard him. "Y'know, I haven't been back to New Orleans since you took me there." She jutted her head in the direction of the landscape around them. When Remy looked around, he could see the lush green grass of Jackson Square. "We sure made a huge mess there, didn't we? Couldn't walk ten feet without some sorta fight startin'."

"Rogue..?"

"... Remy..." Her voice saying his real name was so unfamiliar that it stopped any of his thoughts. When she spoke again, no sound came. Only her lips moved, as if she'd been muted. Remy wasn't sure what was happening, but it was better than the nothing. He remained quiet, simply listening to the sound of her voice coming in and out. She spoke so softly, like she was trying not to wake anyone.

As time passed by, things changed around him. Eventually, even Rogue changed. Instead, he could hear Piotr speaking from his other side. When he looked, he could see him standing just beside him, in front of an easel and painting an intricately detailed blue house.

They'd go back and forth, Piotr and Rogue, with each eventually settling on a single thing to do. Piotr would paint, describing the colors he used so intimately that they would come to life from his brush. Rogue would rest his head on her lap and read from her books, especially favoring one in particular. Remy knew the story so well that, as she read it, he watched the filmed scenes on a silent drive-in theater screen. Even though she would often stop and start again, he could pick up right where he'd left off.

Some of the scenes seemed  _different_ , as though a deleted scene had been added back in. The scene where Louis turns Madeleine was particularly different, with far more build to the actual bite. Just as Louis' fangs began to piece the flesh of her neck, the screen dimmed to dark. "What happened...?" He looked up to see nothing above him but darkness. Not again. Anything but that nothingness! He tried to move once more, utterly unable until finally, with a lot of effort, he moved his hand. He closed his eyes to focus harder.

"Remy...?" Rogue's voice again chimed in his ears, but now she didn't sound calm or relaxed. She sounded concerned.

"Can you open your eyes?" He heard Piotr's voice ask. There was no casualness, only worry.

Last time he checked, he could. Why was it so difficult, now? The soreness in his nose became sharply more intense over a few seconds. Very quickly, he became aware that something was  _in there_ , secured to his face with some sort of tape. With the horrible sensation of something slick and hard spreading further down his nostril and into his throat, he very quickly decided he wanted that  _out_.

Again, his hand was stopped before it could get anywhere near his face, but this time by the firm, but gentle hold of Rogue's hands. "Hold on, you still need that!" she insisted.

He begged to differ, trying to tug his hand free as the sensation forced him to cough. That turned out to be a mistake. Coughing made his whole abdomen hurt like he'd been punched by Juggernaut. On top of that, he could feeel the object shift in his throat, pushed up just slightly by the force of his cough. Piotr was fast enough to hold down his other arm before he could try again. The first sound his voice forced out was an uncomfortable groan. What the hell happened to him after they got in the car, anyway?

 "Keep him calm," he heard Piotr say urgently. "I will get Dr. McCoy!"

'Dr.  _McCoy_ '? Was that  _really_  Beast's name? He felt the pair of large hands slip off of his arm. He didn't lift it again, knowing Rogue would just hold it down if he tried. She moved one of her hands up and began to run her fingers through his hair. He felt the soft leather touch his scalp. This felt a lot more real than before. "It's alright. You're safe. Take it easy." Had he been asleep?

Fighting hard eventually got his eyes to crack open. Of course, they probably hadn't seen any real light in a while. Everything was a very bright smudge, and all he could make out of Rogue was the vague form of her silhouette. He winced his eyes shut, then heard a click from a switch.

"There. That should be better," she assured. Trying again, Remy found the light to be far dimmer. Drearily, he lifted his eyelids, and his vision began to clear just enough to make out her face. Pure relief is all he saw. "Hey, you..." she sighed through a smile.

He pawed limply for her hand to hold his. In an instant, she slipped her gloved fingers between his. "Rrr..." The first attempt to actually speak utterly failed, coming out as an undignified grumble. His throat tensed in protest, dry and tender. "... W-... Water..." he croaked quietly. Anything to ease the discomfort.

She stepped away just when Piotr returned, McCoy accompanying him. "Ah! Mr. LeBeau. Back with us again, hm?" His tone was pleasant and calm. "Can you tell me where you are?" While waiting for an answer, he took out his pen light and began to check Remy's eyes.

Remy tried to pull from the light out of instinct, but Hank was strong enough to hold his head still. He had to wait a moment to fill in the gaps in his memory before he could answer. "Nn... Xav.." he mumbled. That was good enough for McCoy, who seemed to at least understand that talking would be uncomfortable right about now.

Rogue came back into sight, holding a small paper cup in her hand. She supported his head. The mere act of moving was enough to make his sense of balance wobble all over the place. Resting the cup against his lips, she instructed, "Okay, nice and slow." He waited for the water to hit his lip before carefully swallowing. Just that basic function felt a little foreign.

Oh, but did that make his throat feel one-hundred times better, even if that  _damn tube_  had to stay in there. His shaking hands settled, and he sank against the pillow once he'd had enough to drink. His vision was nearly fine, now, though he still had to fight a little to keep his eyes open.

"How do you feel?" Piotr asked nervously.

"Not  _great_." Remy dazedly watched McCoy as the doctor moved about the bed to check different things about him. He had never once been in a hospital, so he had absolutely no clue exactly what McCoy was even looking for through most of his actions. Everyone seemed calm enough for him to assume the best, but he still had to ask, "Kelly...?"

"The X-Men took care of everything," Piotr answered, going on to elaborate, "He is safe and remembers nothing about us."

That was good to hear. Remy didn't want to have to worry about the fate of all mutant-kind on top of all this. Talking was getting easier as he adjusted to the tube. Next, he asked, "How long have I been..?"

Rogue brushed some of his hair from his forehead. "Almost four days," she responded. "Scared the crap outta us."

Seeing that look on her face, and hearing that tone in her voice, he had no choice but to believe the words she had just said. He smirked through the fatigue. "Nice t'know you care 'bout me, cher."

She looked like she'd just been found out, blushing faintly and glancing away. "Never miss a chance, do you..?"

"Not wit you."

The next hour was a sleepy smear of adjusting to the world again. He was told about the rescue of the senator, as well as his surgery. McCoy even insisted on showing him the bits of burnt metal he'd dug out of him through that giant stitched hole in his gut. He still wasn't sure why they had to cut a whole foot-length of him open to get those little things out, but he wasn't the doctor. Rogue and Piotr stayed with him through the day and into the evening. Piotr only eventually left to get some food after his stomach growls got loud enough for everyone to hear, leaving him alone with Rogue for the moment.

She sat there, looking unsure of what to do with herself now that he had been awake for hours. It was getting late, and soon Ororo would be back in to tell them both to go to bed. Remy figured he'd beat her to it on his end, at least. "... I remember somethin' from when I was out." He saw Rogue's head turn toward him in the corner of his vision. "I heard you readin' to me. How did you know I liked that book?"

Rogue looked back at him in surprise. She slipped the book out from her bag, flipping through the pages for stimulation while she spoke. "I just started readin' it 'cause I know it. Piotr told me later that you liked the movie, so I kept readin'."

"Would you..." He glanced her way. "... mind readin' the rest?"

"What?" She raised a brow.

"You were almost done," he explained. "And I liked hearin' it from you."

For a while she just sat there, speechless. Then, a smile started to grow. She tipped her head to the side in a loose nod. "Alright, alright. You're right, I'm almost done..." At first, she looked a little nervous to continue, and it showed in how she read with less inflection and tone. After a while of him listening and her getting used to him, though, she began to get to her old self. He paid attention until the trick started to work on him, making him doze off quietly as she read from the last chapter.

It wasn't a problem, though. He still heard the end in his dreaming.


End file.
